Photo: TagaSanPedroAko · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Bonnie Doon: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Bonnie Doon, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.013 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Bonnie Doon a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Bonnie Doon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bonnie Doon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bonnie Doon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bonnie Doon: A+
For Bonnie Doon, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #11 of 474 in Alberta and #22 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 73 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Bonnie Doon: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Bonnie Doon’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Bonnie Doon fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Only 0.4% of the land within 25 km of Bonnie Doon is forest fuel, and 0.3% close in.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Alberta · highest of 478
Among the 478 towns in Alberta, Wainwright burns fastest (1.43% a year); Bonnie Doon is with the 386 near zero.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Bonnie Doon sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Bonnie Doon (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bonnie Doon: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Bonnie Doon the inventory points to Government of Alberta’s 2024 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Bonnie Doon has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Bonnie Doon.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Bonnie Doon: $0.013 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Bonnie Doon carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Edmonton, with Bonnie Doon one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Bonnie Doon’s $0.013 against $0.013; Black Diamond reaches $0.048.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Bonnie Doon is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 75% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
The loss is to Bonnie Doon’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
1.4% of homes tested around Bonnie Doon are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Capital Health: radon tests
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Bonnie Doon’s area has fewer, 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Bonnie Doon has fewer high tests: 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Bonnie Doon’s band, which holds 37%.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
The survey sampled homes around Bonnie Doon; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Bonnie Doon
Alerts for Bonnie Doon come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Fire danger and active fires near Bonnie Doon are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bonnie Doon
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonnie Doon | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Ritchie 5,215 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Holyrood 3,305 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Riverdale 5,490 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Strathcona 8,283 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Avonmore 2,971 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| King Edward Park 8,399 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Ritchie (low) has the heaviest fire record of Bonnie Doon’s neighbours, and Bonnie Doon (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bonnie Doon faces
Practical steps for Bonnie Doon’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Bonnie Doon until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Bonnie Doon’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Bonnie Doon’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Bonnie Doon without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bonnie Doon
Is Bonnie Doon at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Bonnie Doon’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Bonnie Doon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bonnie Doon A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Bonnie Doon flood?
A flood study covers Bonnie Doon on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Bonnie Doon?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Bonnie Doon topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bonnie Doon?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Bonnie Doon $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).